Balance is hard to reach in life, but you can easily help your clients achieve it by offering treatments that tend to their inner being. Adding balancing elements to facials, massages, and bodywork can help them disconnect from the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day and embrace the present moment, invoking a sense of calmness, clarity, and positivity. From a reiki facial to a dreamtime journey to a Zen ritual, these five treatments show the many different ways you can help restore balance in your clients’ minds, bodies, and souls.
Balance and Recovery Massage
Balance has become a key theme among Flawless Day Spa’s customers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. That’s why Wendy Soloman has added more treatments to address this need, such as the Balance and Recovery Massage (90-minutes, $115, 120-minutes, $140).
This treatment helps balance the body in many ways. “The heel massage is an important first step in this treatment because we’re helping to ground the client. Our therapists use massage techniques and reflexology to restore balance and harmony by focusing on the pressure points in order to relieve pain and achieve deep relaxation throughout the body,” explains Soloman.
The full body massage continues by balancing a person’s energy. “Many of our clients arrive with a goal of stress relief; some for relief of muscle pain; while others are looking for pre- or post-athletic sport benefits. The therapist works with them and applies various techniques, which can both energizing and relaxing. Finally, the relaxation time, or guided meditation, is a needed emotional ‘reset’ that helps to create a sense of peace and calm, balancing the mind after the physical balance provided by the foot and body massage,” she adds.
Reiki Facial
Juniper Garza’s Reiki Facial at her Beauty Alchemy Cabin is not only a great service to separate her from a crowded Los Angeles spa market, but it also offers the perfect way to balance mind, body, and spirit. The $250 treatment includes a customized 75-minute facial, typically including microcurrent, with approximately 30 minutes of energy work and tea service provided to complete the treatment.
The combination of microcurrent with reiki offers a unique balancing act. “Microcurrent gives energy to the skin on the cellular level, helping it to build more collagen and tone the muscles. In doing so it’s really giving the face energy. It complements the energy work because it’s the more physical application of energy work, while the reiki is the spiritual application, so they work well together,” explains Garza, a solo holistic esthetician trained in various modalities of healing arts, energy work, and herbal medicine.
The other way the service creates balance is through the reiki. “Reiki, simplified, is energy balancing, and any energy balancing is essentially a balancing of the chakras, or energy centers. Doing this after the facial, when they are already relaxed, helps them to go into a really deep state of relaxation,” she says.
Like her facials, reiki is also customized to the client’s needs. “I connect with source energy in order to receive insight as how to approach each individual’s needs. I might incorporate smudging, chimes, chant a mantra, or place crystals on them. This is beneficial for anyone who wants a restorative experience, especially for those experiencing stress, holding facial tension or are in need of deep state of relaxation,” adds Garza.
Dreamtime Journey
Dreamtime Journey at Apuane Spa at Four Seasons Resort in Punta Mita, Mexico supports the belief of the Huichols, an indigenous people of Mexico, that people live two lives — one in our waking state and the other in our dreaming state.
This ritual (110-minutes, $500) includes a body exfoliation, a bathing ritual, and massage and helps to promote the journey into the dream world. “More than just looking for a balance in their lives, our clients come here to find an oasis of peace of mind,” says assistant spa manager Paola Mexia.
Dreamtime Journey is recommended for clients with a lot of stress, insomnia, and anxiety, and creates a deep relaxation that promotes sleep and stops the thought process. The service begins with a welcome foot cleansing to help release negative energy and prepare the guest to connect with themselves. “We continue with a gentle body scrub with herbal salts (made of mint, sea salt and grape seed oil) to eliminate toxins from your skin, followed by a harmonious and peaceful neuro-sedative massage based on ancient techniques with repetitive movements to completely switch off the thinking process,” says Mexia.
After the massage, the guest is wrapped into a full body nourishing cocoon with scalp to promote deep, deep sleep, and a pleasant dreamtime journey. “The Huichols believe that our waking state and our dreaming state are both are of great importance in their culture. This beautiful restorative ritual is performed to promote the journey into the dream world, where our subconscious mind and conscious self, meet and create harmony and peaceful,” she adds.
Find Your Zen Ritual
Find Your Zen Ritual (120-minutes, $300) at Spa La Quinta at La Quinta Resort & Club, A Waldorf Astoria Resort in La Quinta, California offers stress reduction, improved sleep, softer and more hydrated skin, increased circulation, reduced pain and muscle tension, and a greater connection of the mind, body and spirit.
The treatment begins with a soak in the spa’s Zen blend and truffle-infused bath while sipping on a healing tonic. The tonic contains six stress-relieving flower essences. “Lavender to relieve stress, star tulip to calm the mind, dandelion to release tension and toxins, yarrow to build strength, manzanita to bring centeredness and happiness, and self-heal to boost wellness and healing,” says director of spa and fitness Christina Cabrera.
After a 20-minute soak is a dry brush exfoliation to remove dead skin cells, increase circulation and engage the lymphatic system followed by a full body hydrating custom massage. This treatment is concluded with a self-guided pranayama breathing journey to promote proper breathing, detox the lungs, invigorate the body with an oxygen boost, and relax the mind, leaving a calm balanced state of being.
“Pranayama breathing ritual is also known as the complete or three-part breath. This is the final step in the ritual to connect the mind, body, and spirit which is essential for balancing,” she explains.
Cabrera says Find Your Zen Ritual attracts clients who like to connect with nature, who are looking for deep relaxation, and are comfortable with meditation. “We recommend this treatment to anyone in need of stress reduction and is looking for a relaxed state of mind, body, and spirit,” she adds.
Guided Meditation Cleanse
The Guided Meditation Cleanse at Flawless Day Spa in Chapel Hill, North Carolina was created to address the number one health issue in the country — stress, according to owner Wendy Solomon.
“Our clients are often aware that their work/life balance is important to manage in keeping their stress levels low, but it is easier said than done. That is why we created this treatment – to help balance body, mind, and spirit,” she says.
The treatment (60-minutes, $90) starts with a full body scrub, which helps to invigorate the senses while it exfoliates the skin and helps it to breathe. The scented sugar scrub is organic and appeals to the senses, creating an emotional response in order to facilitate deep relaxation. Next, the therapist lights a sage stick and smudges the body while reciting a prayer to release negative energy. “This help clients clear negativity, get in touch with their higher power, and connect with the divine. By tapping into their spiritual,” says Soloman.
The treatments ends with a guided breathing exercise, which is both a physical and spiritual treatment. “It increases oxygen flow, lowers blood pressure, detoxes the cells, and releases endorphins. It helps people clear their minds, relieve stress, and achieve deeper levels of meditation. People that practice breathing exercises regularly find that they have greater mental sharpness and are able to perform better at work or at physical tasks. It is a simple part of the treatment but helps to balance the body in these numerous ways,” she explains.
